Hangin in Hong Kong
19 Feb 2010 2 Comments
Well, Jessica and I went to Hong Kong for the past five days during Chinese New Year. It was fantastic. Hong Kong is a lot like Taipei except a lot different too. It felt more like what I think New York city is like, a little dirty and rowdy and full of all kinds of different people. We had a room at the YesInn hostel on the island and mainly stayed in Hong Kong just touring about and getting a feel for the city. There’s so much to do and so much to eat. Dim Sum, a style of brunch where little little dishes such as shrimp and pork dumplings, barbecued pork puffs, fish balls (like meat balls), taro cakes, and so much more, come around on carts. It’s incredibly delicious. Although, I thought I would be tough and ordered the chicken feet and realized that I am not so tough after all. Let’s just say there are limits to my love of exotic food. Other food of note was at an Indonesian restaurant where I tasted the best curry I think I’ve ever had. Yum.
The longest escalator system in the world is in Hong Kong. It’s 800 Meters long, not as one escalator but in several chunks that run up the hill in the city. The entire city is built basically on the edge of these very large mountain like hills that run down to the water, so everything is very leveled. In fact the city is sectioned off into labeled levels. The escalator’s function is to give people living in the midlevels an easy walking commute to their downtown job. To that effect, it runs down in the morning until 10 am and then begins going up until midnight, letting people getting out of work ride back up. Naturally, a lively night life area has sprung up around this moving walkway. We stopped off at a place and had the best mojitos I think I’ve ever had. They had tons of mint, ginger and were just delicious.
Kowloon lies just across from Hong Kong. We spent a few days there too, exploring. There is a place called Chungking Mansions which is the setting for the movie Chungking Express and is a hostel and home to a plethora of people of different nationalities and is also a giant shopping center, much like everything else in Hong Kong.
Lantau Island was home to the Tian Tan Buddha, an incredibly large Buddha that we visited via glass gondola. The ride was very fun but the two and a half hour wait was not. The Buddha was incredible though.
Well be back to work on Monday and are preparing for interviews to get jobs in China after our contracts are up here.
Happy Chinese New Year,
Lots of luck
.
Josh
bad teeth and bitter melon juice
10 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
Jessica and I finally went to the Dentist on Tuesday. I found one highly recommended on Forumosa (the aptly named (As Taiwan is sometimes referred to the isle Formosa from the 1500s when Portuguese sailors named her beautiful island) online forum of all things for English speaking Expats living in Taiwan) named Dr. Wei. The only drawback people said, was that one would have to make the trek all the way out to Tienmu. But wait, I thought, I already live in Tienmu. No trek for me and a few days later we discover this Australian trained Dr. Wei not three blocks away in a building with a lot of other businesses. Once there, we ran into a security guard and pointed to our teeth. He pointed up. Anyway, long story short, it was an excellent cleaning. They didn’t except our national health insurance but it was still only about $40 U.S. The bad news though is that I have five cavities. I can’t believe it. I never have cavities. In fact I’ve never had a cavity before I got the first one of the five I have right now. I don’t even have a sweet tooth. Although, I did drink a lot of Apple Cidra, this awesome apple soda, when we first arrived in Taiwan. Anyway, it’s going to cost $10000 NT for Dr. Wei to fix’em up which is about $300 U.S. and that’s too rich for my blood, even though it’s exceedingly cheap still compared to medicine in America. By the way American’s I hope you have all that straightened out by the time I get back. Since Jessie’s got a cavity too, we’re going out searching for another dentist that has National Health Insurance written all over it. No really, they write it on the signs out front.
This week we’ve been running around the country. First we went to Jinshan kind of by accident. Got on a wrong bus and thought we were heading for Jiufen. But, once we reached the coast and started heading the opposite way, we knew Jiufen was for another day. Jinshan was lovely and we took a ride in a taxi through lovely mountain roads to a sculpture museum that was closed unfortunately. But, it’ll just give us a reason to go back.
Today, we went to Jiufen and finally walked down the old street. The last time we were there it was raining and miserable so we skipped a lot of cool stuff. Today was gorgeous though and the view was incredible. Jessica had some yummy mochi dessert and I some stinky tofu that was delicious and satisfying and not really even that stinky. Also, we had some juice on a porch overlooking I think I might say the most beautiful view we’ve seen yet in Taiwan. It was just a lovely day. We even got seats on the bus.
Happy New Year
03 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
It is Chinese New Year coming up in a few weeks. This year is the year of the Tiger, year 99. Good bye 98, year of the Ox. I’ll miss you ol Oxy. It’s weird because when we first starting getting our bills they all said 98 on them for the year and I kept thinking that we were getting some really old bills from someone else. Actually, the year is 98 because in Taiwan the years are counted from the birth of the R.O.C. in 1912. Good to know if you’re ever paying bills in Taiwan.
It’s been a hectic few weeks with work piling higher and higher. We had a Parent Teacher Conference /slash/ Chinese New Year celebration at school on Saturday. We did a dragon dance and I was the dragon ball with all of the children running behind me in one of those dragon costumes I’m sure everyone can imagine. We danced for the parents. One child fell over and the dragon was teetering pretty low to the ground but we managed to get back up and salvage our dance and our dignity. That’s the funny thing about parents, they’re very lenient in their criticism of their child’s school performance abilities. Who would have thought.
Also, I was told to plan a twenty minute PTA session with the parents and then the school gave us about forty five minutes. So, there was a little bit of awkward time that I didn’t count on but we just chatted and I showed the parents around my room.
Then, there was a blessing, where the parents dressed up in traditional dress and sat on two chairs and their son or daughter would kneel before them, say, “thank you mommy and daddy for taking care of me,” then say it in Chinese, “Xie Xie baba mama …” and then lift a tray of tea up in an offering to their parents. Then the parents would smile and give their children a red envelope with some kind of prize inside. I’m not sure if it is money but I think it might be.
But before all that on Sat. morning I went to the main Hess office in Taipei and filled in for Jessica in being a regional judge for a final round of the Hess speech competition. Jessica taught a speech class late last year but she had commitments at her school and couldn’t make it to the regional competition. It was fun. One girl gave a speech on how she wanted to be Bill Gates because he is an Angel and gives all of his money to charity. Another person wanted to be the ruler of the world in order to abolish homework. I had to test my own speech skills also as I found out about five minutes before festivities opened that the judges would be invited to the stage to give feedback when all contestants were finished. That was a bit nerve racking but I felt after I had stepped down from that stage and spoke my peace I felt I had maybe I had had my mettle tested more than the students competing.
So, besides the obvious stress bomb characteristics of the day, it was pretty fun.
We’re only teaching in the mornings now so we have the whole afternoon off. Today, I spent some time laying in bed reading.
Yesterday we went back to Maokong for more hiking. I swear, every hiking trail is beautiful in Taiwan.
The pictures are of maokong and of a dinosaur bone exhibit that we went to a few weeks ago.
And, there was this really funny talking raptor that I’d thought I’d share.
